Paint 'n space

Plasterer was on site today, along with the painters. Plasterer said that he's spending so much time here that he might move in! All that needs to be done now is the cornice (from what I can see).

Painters started under the eaves at the front, and looks like they ran out of paint. Some of the steel lintels above the windows have also been done.

I went to take a look upstairs, and guess what - no more ladder. In fact, no more anything. Empty space where our staircase will go.

Just as well the staircase has been delivered!

There won't be any updates for a few days as your friendly blogger will be away. You get a rest for a few days, and I get to do a big update (hopefully!) when I get back!

Kitchen

Hallway, towards front door

Our ladder is gone!

Staircase has been delivered

Looking up at the second level - standing where the staircase will go.

Looks like we ran out of paint.

Painted eave

Another angle. Had to take advantage of the scaffolding!

Painted lintel

..and again!

Extra Pictures

Today we went to the house and took a few extra pictures. Bernadette decided that it was time to do a bit of a clean through - some of the tradies who had been through had a thing for fast food, and there was rubbish all over the place.

Rear cladding looks great!

Bath has been delivered - we went for the longer 1700mm one - standard is around 1500mm.

Ummm. A stack of bricks.

Lining the overhangs of the alfresco.

After the cleanup!

Magpies. There seems to be a lot of these bird hanging around the site. I counted 20 of them yesterday. During the week the reason became clear - one of the local residents feeds them every day. As a result, every black roof in the area has bird crap all over it where maggies sit on the tv anetenna. They never leave, because they get a free meal every day!

Closer and closer

If you read the title, you might wonder... closer and closer to what?

Answer: Lockup, and the next big invoice from Porter Davis.

Today the plasterer and chippie were on site, along with the friendly neighborhood brick stacker.

Plaster is making good progress, as can be seen below. The upstairs fill work has been done, and the downstairs is in progress. After that, it's the cornices on both levels.







Speaking to the Site Supervisor (who also visited the site today), it looks like the staircase isn't too far away. The scaffolding will be coming down soon, and a site clean will then happen which should transform the look of the house.

The rear cladding was installed today - the photo below was taken while in progress. We will upload a completed photo tomorrow.


Some of the eave lining has also been done (the fiddly bits at the back of the house) and the front eave lining will happen tomorrow or Monday.

Our bath as also been delivered. No photo... we really didn't take enough photos today.... something to do with moving a couple of packs of bricks!

Acid wash

Bricks were given a dose of the acid scrub today and cleaned up. We are very happy with the colour, and the guy doing the cleaning also commented on the excellent work done by the brickies.

Some photos for your enjoyment! As you can see below, there are two windows still to be installed (these were the ones which were knocked off, but replacements have been delivered).








We particularly like the nice even brick work in the picture above. The plasterer was also at it today, and although the house was locked we could see that there had been plenty of patching and filling going on.

Tricky Tri-Lock

This entry is about locks. Yep - boring old locks that you put on the outside doors.

During our selection process at Hopetoun we were asked about locks, and chose the usual separate knob and deadlock for the laundry door. We intended to put something a little nicer on the front door as it's more of a feature.

During a chat with our Site Supervisor he suggested we look at the "Tri-lock" which provides a three in one lock (duh - you probably worked that out from the name). Three modes are passage, lockset and deadbolt all in the one unit. One of the nice features is that if the lock needs to be operated from outside using the key, the lock can be unlocked and the door opened all from the key - our previous home required two hands to open the deadlock and turn the knob at the same time.

Apparently they can be installed in place of most common door locks, but if you have the separate knob/lever and deadlock you may be stuck with them as they are fitted as separate locks.

Anyhow, these Trilocks ain't cheap - we picked one up at Bunnings for $175.

The one we went for was the "Contemporary Lever", pictured below:


They are available in different styles, and knobs as well as levers.

The link to the site is here: link thingy
The brochure can be found here: another link thingy

Thought this might be of interest to a few people who are in the process of building. Thanks to our Site Supervisor (again!).

Bricks done!

Brickwork is complete, with the exception of a few minor pieces which will be done later.

Quiet on the job today. The security company came back and pulled the wires they needed through the plaster.










Later this week we should see the eaves lined, and then the scaffolding will come down. Once the scaffolding is down and the bricks cleaned the place will look totally different!

All Hung Up

After a couple of days away we stopped by the house today and went in and took a few photos.

Yes, the house was unlocked. Looks like some more deliveries had been made, but doesn't seem as though anyone has been in there that shouldn't have been.

The change since last Thursday is amazing as the front brickwork is almost done, and the plaster sheets have all been hung.

Busy Busy Busy!

More bricks and plaster today, and only one photo for your viewing pleasure - because the house was locked when we got there. Good work!

This side of the house has been bricked today - these guys work fast! We could see that the interior has had a lot more plaster done.

Tools and Bits

In the right column of this page (if you scroll down) you will see a new section titled "Tools and bits". There are three things in this section:

1. Some handy checklists which may help others building or about to build (we are happy to add items to these lists)
   
   
2. A Firefox Search addin for the homeone forums. If you are building or planning to build, visit http://forums.homeone.com.au)
   
   
3. A new album of all the pictures of the house on this blog. We thought some people might want to have a look an album of pictures.
   

Our Cremorne 41 (the album)

Busy, busy!

It must have been very busy at our humble little (!) home today as we had the following people on site:

• Brickies - the brickies have been hard at it and have finished one side of the house in one day;
  
  
• Plasterers - the plasterers have started upstairs and almost every room has some board hung now.
  
  
• Neighbourhood Kids - the local teenagers have been visiting the place after the tradies leave. How do we know? Because Bernadette caught them climbing out one of the windows. I think they were a bit surprised by the firey blonde putting the fear of God into them. Let's hope they got the message. Even though they claimed never to have been in the house before, I suspect it's the same kids who helped themselves to some cables previously.
  
  It would be nice if the tradies locked up when they left in the evening! Even though it would mean we can't get in to take photos, we would prefer that the place is secure.
  

People have said that they like the pictures, so here are a whole bunch more.

First, a picture which was taken from the top level of the house this evening:


The latest house picture. Check the upstairs brickwork:



Interior pictures:

Everything happening very quickly. Great to see!

A bit tipsy

Went past the house after work today, and in the fading daylight saw that some progress had been made on the ground floor by the plasterers.

Entry:

Looking from the entry:

Theatre Room:


Footprints on the ceiling:

Sand and mixer delivered today, which means the brickies will probably be on site tomorrow:

Family room:

Formal lounge:

The combination of daylight saving being over and the house being locked is going to make it difficult for photos - but we will do our best!

Ps: Why the title "A bit tipsy"? Answer - because we are not fully plastered yet... (sorry).

Thieving Ba5t4rds!

We thought we might give you a break from a blog entry today because nothing would be happening. Wrong! Bad luck for you!

Speaking of bad luck, I hope the person who came in and took some of my speaker wire and home theatre wiring has 7 years bad luck. I know that theft is common on building sites, but honestly - stealing speaker wire - is this what we have come to?

On a more positive note, the bulkhead plaster was installed today, and the rest of the insulation was also put in - everything in readiness for the plaster (with the exception of the cables I need to replace). In case you are wondering, there are 35 bulkhead plaster sections which are pre-made and then delivered to the building site.





We went back in today and did a clean up and we tidied up the tape holding the insulation batts between the rooms. Plasterers "easy tape", seems to do the trick. Contact us if you need more information.

Small bits

Yesterday a bit more plaster was delivered, and I took a few more pictures showing the new foil which has been added to the back. The windows in the back have yet to be put in (the originals ones were stolen from the site).

The photo below shows our house from higher up the hill. The green colour stands out! From the upper level of our new home we have a view over Geelong, Corio Bay across to the You Yangs.





Thanks to Dad for making the trip down from the Murray to visit, and come and check the house out. The house is so big I think he might be planning a move around August..... :-)

The house is locked, with the exception that the plaster sheets are so large the back door can't be closed. Lockup is a good thing, although it means a large progress payment, and restricted access.

Huge!

Today the plaster was delivered - we've seen plaster boards before, however the ones delivered today were HUGE! So large in fact that the guys delivering the boards had some trouble fitting them in the house.

Brickies were on site loading some of the bricks onto the scaffolding. Looks like we are in for some activity soon!

BSS Quality Inspections

In the last entry we mentioned that the frame quality inspection had been completed, as evidenced by the pink marks.

We thought that people building with Porter Davis might be interested in this link:

http://www.bssdesign.com.au/porterdavis.html

BSS is the company which undertakes the Quality Inspections.

Batts

Things have slowed down a little as we wait for the brickies to come back to the job and start on the upper level brickwork. Plaster is due to be delivered and fixed downstairs soon.

Yesterday some of the wall batts were delivered, and installed. The very high winds across Victoria yesterday caused havoc with many things, and our new home didn't escape as the upper level foil was ripped off and started flapping around like a sail on a yacht.



Fortunately we were there when the bloke from Bradford came by, and helped him to re-secure the foil again, although it's in pretty poor condition due to the wind and will need to be replaced.


One of the other things we noticed yesterday was that the frame inspection had been done, as there were a few pink marks here and there. Overall I think the the frame quality is very good, as there were not too many pink marks. I think the credit there goes to the Site Supervisor, who is doing a great job for us.


Finally, the plumbers had been back and raised a couple of the taps in the ensuite - we are going for the "salad bowl" type of vanity bowls which sit on the bench, with the taps coming out of the wall. The taps when put in were a bit too low to clear the bowls.

The house is now locked up on the ground floor, so future internal photos may have to be taken while tradies are on site, so we can get in.

Yesterday we heard a story about an owner who actually had an intervention order taken out against him to prevent him from being onsite - We should stress here that the builder was not PD! Apparently this owner was getting stuck into the tradies (offering "advice"), and checking on their work, and being a general pain in the rear. Hmmm.